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Wednesday 30 December 2009

Ian Rushton - A Year in Bad Boys - 2009.

No I am not going through the whole year repeating things and events but I thought I might try and record a few reactions to a year’s darts in the hut.

I will try not to dwell on things that we all know, for example that Steve seldom turns up and that Papas rebounds have only drawn blood once so far but we are all terrified by the noise they make as they bounce off the board whilst we are walking away. Similarly the regular, but temporary, loss of Jelly Arm as he leaves the building to receive the talking to that he gives himself, and the occasional Redbond cry of ‘YeeeeeessssS’ as he hits a treble and explains to us all how he was going for it. How we all miss the machine gun like clatter of Casablanca’s darts hitting the floor as he vents his frustration with his own play. And we all know the severe stare of our host if one is judged to be straying into the area of behaviour classified as barracking. I certainly know the feeling one gets when ones attire for the evening draws a critique from Peter, and collects labels such as Val Doonican and Captain Birdseye.

One shouldn’t be hurt by the injustice of the label Moth Man for removing a moth from this life when it was in an area of the hut which could easily have caused a distraction to other occupants. After all the venue has an insectocutor running virtually all the time which destroys anything which is careless enough to stray into it. I often wonder what might be the outcome if one of Papas darts ventured in that direction.

Of course these are things that Peter includes in his regular weekly reports so I will not cover them here.

I feel that I should not spend time and words reflecting on my own performance at darts, after all Peter produces very good statistics week by week. This means that anyone who is interested would know that my %age of wins in 2007 was 57.4 and after playing virtually every week throughout 2008 I delivered 49.83%! Here I am after another full year of darts which has resulted in a much deserved improvement to 50.16%. I would of course resist any temptation I might feel to blame the many people that have partnered me in 2009. Anyway, as I said, one shouldn’t just go through a year’s darts looking at ones own results.

So, that is quite a lot of material being ruled inadmissible for this purpose and means that I need to look elsewhere for the content of this missive.

So perhaps I need a more general look at the years play? Things have certainly moved on. We regularly play 7 or 8 games in a 2 hour session and occasionally even 9, and therefore it is a worthwhile outing. It is always good to catch up with whatever is happening in our various lives, but there is seldom a need for any deeply serious conversation. Regardless of who partners who, the perceived abilities of the various individuals, it is seldom possible to predict the result of the evenings play, or for that matter a single game. The outcome is never really certain until it is over. They are all very competitive games, exciting on very many occasions, so that you can feel the tension in the hut and enjoy the highly charged atmosphere.

A Shang Hai is always worthy of note, some trebles can justify praise, double trebles usually come in for analysis, treble trebles are obviously very memorable but sadly I can’t remember one, even just a good close grouping of darts, especially if in a number under 10, and thrown by your opponents are praised extensively. Sometimes some unusual tactics will cause some debate and discussion. Of course, operating in the somewhat confined space of the hut a team cannot have a private discussion on tactics so inevitably the opposition join in and can even influence the outcome!

As a result one can face with confidence the fact that if you say to Papa ‘Some 18s would be good’ and he throws his darts at 17, you know that all is in fact well with the world.

When I get home and am asked the inevitable question ‘What did you talk about?’ I am able to say ‘Nothing’. In my view this is incontrovertible evidence of time well spent.

Roll on next season.

Ian.

2009 Attendance.


Above is a chart of the attendance figures for the year, out of a possible 48 fixtures. As you can see we have a wide range of attendance from the ultra keen (Pete, Ian and CM) through to the lower attendees (Mr Average, Steve and Malc).

As you might know, yearend scores are only ‘official’ if you make 12 matches per year, a feat truly mastered by JA (otherwise known as Mr Average). Steve and Malc’s figures are therefore unofficial.

Malc only managed 2 matches this year and has therefore been thrown out of bad boys; had his darts broken over his knees; been stripped of all badges and insignia.

Only kidding... But as Malc is now permanently resident in Oxford, his chances of increasing attendance are slim and he has asked me to remove him from the roster for next year. Malc I would like to say on behalf of all the bad boys what a pleasure it was to play with you and better still against you! Love from us all.

Steve has no such excuse and says he wants to play again next year! Right then everybody hold your collective breath.....

Peter x

Darts – The last match of the season!



The final lap of this year’s darts grand prix has been finished, the chequered flag waved and the results are in!

The last match took place on Tuesday 22nd December. I don’t intend to delve deeply in to the nuts and bolts, just give the result really! Teams were Ian and Doddy ‘v’ Pete, Casablanca and Dave.

We all had a lot of fun but although the laughs were shared the scores weren’t. The final score line was: PCMD 1234567 / W ID. So a 7 – 0 victory to PCMD

Bull Wars: Doddy 2, Ian 1, Peter 1, Dave 1 making Doddmeister the bullmeister.

Chart Changes: Well I said there could be changes right up to the last minute and how right I was! Due to Ian’s loss on the evening Papa bubbles up one place past Rushers to 3rd position. Dave, due to his win zooms two places up the leader board to 5th place!

The Final Rankings for the year are:

Peter 58.12%
CM 54.65%
Papa 50.94%
Ian 50.16%
Dave 47.32%
John 46.67%
Mike D 44.71%
Doddy 35.92%
Steve 34.78% (unofficial)
Malc 14.29% (unofficial)

I hope you all enjoyed the year and I look forward to the next one.

All that remains now is for me to present this years winner’s trophy to myself...

And... Hope one of you lot win it next year!

GAME ON!

Peter x

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Darts – T minus 1



Hi folks, we are almost at the end of the season, there is only one more match before the Bad Boys year end. Enough of next week, what happened this week I hear you ask?

This evening’s musketeers were: Pete, Ian, Mike-D and CM. After a couple or so flips the teams were decided as Jelly Arm and Rushers ‘v’ Pete and Casablanca Mike.

We set of on the first game in a very ragged fashion with all players looking like they needed to warm up, except Jelly Arm who decided he needed to cool down and immediately took himself out in to the frozen waste to give himself a good talking to. CM gave JA a good talking to as well because he left the hut door open on the way, boy was it cold out there!

Despite the poor start team PCM managed to bag the first game and then suffered a defeat in game two. We then had a good run from three to six, lost the seventh and took the eighth.

This leaves us with a score line of PCM 134568 / IJA 17 being a 6 – 2 victory to Casablanca and Pete.

I must point out that the score line in no way reflects the darts played for the evening; with the exception of two matches (one won by each team) that had considerable leads the others were all fairly close with the lead changing hands once or more in each game; exciting stuff.

I would go as far as to say a lot of the games were won or lost on tactics, often when one team made a decision to move on to open another number or not to chase the opposition they paid with blood. Two examples spring to mind Ian and JA left the 18s open in one game and CM and I managed to get a treble each along with some singles, stealing that game. In another CM and I were slow on the uptake with 17s and Jelly Arm had a field day scoring two treble 17s in a turn. Rushers was doing the similar on other numbers racking up shanghais and the like.

Notable Events:

In addition to the above JA managed a double semi and it was very nearly a triple, prompting him to enquire about certificates!

Lots of good darts played by all (along with some duffers of course); all things considered JA was MOTM for upping his game for the evening.

Bull Wars: JA 2, Ian 1, Pete 1, CM 1. Making JA the bullmeister for the evening.

Chart Changes: Only one change, JA drops below John.

One more to go, a full house at the moment then a break for Xmas week. Time to start consulting your diaries for January dates if you are keen to get booked in ASAP.

Game On!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Darts - It must be nearly Xmas!



Even torrential rain can’t dampen the spirits of a hut full of Bad Boys!

It was a prompt start (for most of us), but actually getting going took a little longer than normal due to an unusual ‘flipping’ arrangement.

There were six of us to play and the first flip produced a two - four which meant the remaining four flippers had to get a one – three result; not an easy task as the statistically minded amongst you can imagine, it took the best part of a further dozen flips; but finally the teams were decided as:

Peter, Ian and Papa ‘v’ Dave, Doddy and Casablanca Mike. We only managed 6 games, but what a six games! Now I think some folks will argue about this but to me they all felt close even if the final scores didn’t reflect it, you never knew if you were safe until the winning darts was in the board. In any event they were all good fun and the final tally was: PIP 1356 / 24 DDCM a 4 - 2 victory to Peter, Ian and Papa.

As you can see the result is only one game away from a draw so no disgrace to the losing side!

Notable Events:

Far too many to remember both good and bad. Some highlights that did lodge in the brain were Rushsers having a bull semi combo, two or three folks having double semis.

Several shouts of ‘Bugger me that’s nine darts without a score’.

Pete scoring a double treble nineteen.

Lots of trebles, lots of rubbish turns. However through it all Casablanca Mike was probably the most consistent player of the evening and for that reason alone (being a pearl amongst swine) he deserves to be MOTM.

Unusually, some vicious barracking took place, apparently (cough) I was involved in cheering when CM failed to get a score, doesn’t sound like me I know, but seemingly it happened along with guff from other players.

Bull Wars: Slim pickings tonight: Peter 2, Ian 1, CM 1. Making Pedros the minimalist bullmeister of the week.

Chart Changes: Not a sausage, however there is a definite scrap on for second place! The gap between Ian and Casablanca Mike closed by about 0.7% this week, leaving the gap at 0.62% which means a similar result next week could see Ian and Mike swap places... Will Jelly Arm be able to maintain his 0.08% lead over John?

Game On!

Peter x

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Darts – I can read you know!



A cold and wet Tuesday evening, what better way to cheer yourself up than some serious dart action in the bad boys hut!

The hut had been rather cold when I opened it for the evening, only 4°C, thankfully a quick blast of the halogen heater had the room up to a bearable 12°C when we got started.

Dave was unable to play as he had sustained an infection / injury to his ear caused by either an eight ball off a cushion or the insertion of a cue in his lug-hole, in any event Dave decided to blame the whole thing on his ‘pool’ man, bloody unfair if you ask me. This left Pete, Ian and CM to slug it out. After a single flip of the flipometers the teams were decided as CM ‘v’ Pete and Ian.

We launched in to an eight game extravaganza. Mike steamed comfortably through the first three games, particularly the first one where Ian and I were massacred. Thankfully we then took a couple and a little more ping ponging until we had a final score line of CM 1236 / 4578 PI

In the early games Casablanca was thumping every available treble, building score and typically getting a pair of semi’s in his first turn at the centre. Thankfully Pete and Ian’s lacklustre performance started to pick up as the evening went on and of course CM was throwing twice as many darts as us, so he began to tire allowing the opposition to cash in on scores!

Notable Events:

Mike had a stunning amount of trebles and regular double semis.

Mike scored 7 x 19 ‘Nice’.

All players had double semi turns.

It was agreed we were all able to see what was on the scoreboard.

Bull Wars: CM 2. Peter 1, Ian 1. This makes CM the evening’s bullmeister and I suspect MOTM.

Chart Changes: None All players % went down slightly!

There may still be room for change with another three fixtures before the end of the season. I am particularly interested to see what happens at Jelly Arm’s next appearance as he and John are still only a gnat’s cock apart.

Game On!

Peter x